DANBURY -- Smiths Detection, a prominent Danbury defense contractor and manufacturer with more than 130 employees, plans to leave the city early next year.

Dana Knox-Gower, the company's director of communications, confirmed this week that executives decided to move the Commerce Park operations to the company's headquarters in Maryland by the end of February.

While gubernatorial candidates have voiced concerns about the high cost of manufacturing in the state, Knox-Gower said the company's decision was based on internal factors that would allow the company to maintain a competitive advantage.

When asked if it was too expensive to manufacture in Connecticut, Knox-Gower said the move would provide, "cost benefits, which ultimately we can pass back to our customers."

"To remain competitive and to achieve growth we need to ensure we are cost competitive for our customers while optimizing operations," she said. "Regrettably, the decision to move our operations from Danbury to Edgewood, our U.S. headquarters, is a result of this evaluation. The decision was very difficult because the Danbury location has been a core talent pool for us for more than a decade."

The area's pool of skilled labor is often touted by local economic development officials as one of the region's strengths.

Smiths Detection manufactures a variety of products for the defense industry including detection devices for radiation and explosives as well as chemical and biological agents used by troops on the front lines.

Then-U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman visited the company's Danbury facility three years ago to examine the Radseeker, a handheld radiation-detection device weighing less than five pounds that can identify more than 40 radioactive isotopes.

At the time, company officials said the product, which was developed in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, could play an important role in protecting the country's borders from nuclear threats.

Knox-Gower declined to comment on how many employees would be laid off by the move, saying the company is working to identify essential skills and talent that would be needed at the Maryland facility.

"For those jobs which will be impacted, we are working to provide outplacement and benefits services," she said.

Mayor Mark Boughton said he was not happy to see those jobs leaving Connecticut.

"Smiths Detection is in an industry that is government driven and they receive a lot of funding from the federal government," he said. "Maryland may work better for them geographically but we also recognize that there are dozens of local families being affected by this."

Boughton, who bowed out of the gubernatorial race earlier this year, said the company's departure is another indicator of the need to make Connecticut more business friendly.

"The challenge for us now will be helping these employees reintegrate into the workforce," he said.